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Police brutality through the years
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Police Brutality
When one thinks of police misconduct many not too distant stories might go through our heads. Most adults will remember how they felt when they saw the brutal beating of Rodney King on their local news station; or the outrage they experienced when they heard that the evidence in the OJ Simpson trial had been tampered with. But thanks to new guidelines, procedures and even civilian groups who now “police” the police, instances of police misconduct may soon start seeing a decline.
In the past police misconduct was loosely defined, if at all. But with recent cases receiving so much news coverage legal definitions have been worked out. The term “police deviance” includes brutality, discrimination, sexual harassment, intimidation and illicit use of weapons (Barker and Carter, 1986). Another definition of police misconduct is when police officers violate:
1.formally written normative rules
2. traditional operating procedures
3.regulations and procedures of police and other public service agencies
4. criminal and civil laws
(Linch and Diamond, 1983)
Recently, an Inglewood police officer was captured on videotape slamming a sixteen-year old boy on the trunk of a squad car and punching him in the face even though the youngster was handcuffed. A year after the King atrocity, two white Detroit police officers bludgeoned Malice Green to death with their flashlights tearing off part of his scalp. Three years later, five foot five inch-one hundred forty five pound Johnny Gammage was pulled over while driving through a predominantly white Pittsburgh suburb, only to be choked and beaten to death after allegedly attacking five white police officers. In 1997, a New York City police officer rammed a stick from a toilet plunger six inches into the rectum of Abner Louima rupturing his intestines (Troutt 6). To make matters worse the officer stuck the soiled stick into the victim's mouth. Two years later, Amadou Diallo and former pro football player Demetrius DuBose were murdered by New York City and San Diego police respectively. Diallo was shot by four white plain-clothes officers while standing in the vestibule of his own Bronx apartment building. According to the officers upon approaching the building Diallo stepped back inside as if to hide. When Diallo reached into ...
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...e against Black Males: Aberrations or Everyday Occurrences http://mundanebehavior.org/issues/v3n3/jeffries.htm. Amnesty International. California: Update on Police Brutality, 1999a.
Amnesty International. Police Brutality and Excessive Force in the New York City Police Department, 1999b.
Amnesty International. USA: Death by discrimination: Skin colour influences who lives. May 18, 1999c.
Perry, Tony. "Police Shooting Was Justified, D.A. Finds." Los Angeles Times. 2 November 1999, p. A3.
Troutt, David D. "Unreasonable and the Black Profile." Los Angeles Times. 5 March 2000, p.m6
Amnesty International.USA: POLICE BRUTALITY WIDESPREAD PROBLEM IN NEW YORK CITY,1996
Sotang and Barry. “Using settlements to measure police abuse”. The New York Times.
Sept. 17, 1997
Martin, Christine, Peter B. Bensinger, and Thomas F. Baker. Illinois Municipal Officers' Perceptions of Police Ethics. Chicago, Illinois: Illinois Criminal Justice Information Authority, 1994
Linch G., & Diamond, E. (1983) Police Misconduct. In Kadis, S. Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice. New York: The Free Press
Barker, T. & Carter, D. (1986) Police Deviance. Cincinnati: Pilgrimage. Hale, D.C.
One case involving police brutality and the NYPD is the Amadou Diallo case. In February of 1999, 22 year old Amadou Diallo was standing in front of his home unarmed when four plain-clothed police officers came up to him and shot at him 41 times, hitting him 19 times. He died instantly. Diallo had no prior criminal record (Cooper). This raises the question: was the use of deadly force warranted in this situation? According to the cops and other witnesses, Diallo was
Police misconduct is as rampant as ever in America, and it has become a fixture of the news cycle. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. The media is inevitably drawn toward tales of conflict, hence why there are so many crime and police stories on the news. Despite the increasing frequency of misbehaving cops, many Americans still maintain a high respect for the man in uniform. Still, police misconduct is a systemic problem, not just an anecdotal one. Here are some reasons why it is a problem. First, many departments don’t provide adequate training in nonviolent solutions. With this, police are unfamiliar with what to do in a non-violent situation, often resorting
Research Paper Rough Draft: Police Brutality Police misconduct is as rampant as ever in America, and it has become a fixture of the news cycle. Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. The media is inevitably drawn toward tales of conflict, hence why there are so many crime and police stories on the news. Despite the increasing frequency of misbehaving cops, many Americans still maintain a high respect for the man in uniform. Still, police misconduct is a systemic problem, not just an anecdotal one.
With the number of police brutality cases increasing over time, there has become a variety of causes as well. Policing the police departments is done at the hands of both the chief of the police department and the courts. When dealing with police brutality, the courts look at these situations and cases as just the officers did not use excessive force but used the necessary amount of force to protect the officer and the other officers that are involved in the situation (Worden (1995). The courts do not believe that these allegations are true and they do not fully investigate the allegations because they do not want to find out that their department is not following the policies and that they are taking matters into their own hands. Bandes
Background and Audience Relevance: According to the Human Rights Watch 2012 report on Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States; police brutality has become one the most serious human rights violation. As citizens of the United States it is our duty to make sure that those with authority don 't take advantage of their power.
A Critical Assessment In defining police ethics, ethical policing and police ethics are not synonymous or interchangeable connotations to or for one another. Aside from establishing a police role independently from establishing any definition of ethics or police ethics, the semantics tend to complicate the defining process. Some of these complications include, but are not limited to, sociological aspects, psychological conditions, or philosophical reasoning. Examples of sociological complications include historical, political, cultural, or economic aspects. Some psychological examples include one’s ability to discern sociological implications from other implications; namely, the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder, hydrophobia, or even weary dreams. Lastly,
Cheh, M. "Are lawsuits an answer to police brutality." Police violence: Understanding and controlling police abuse of force (1996): 247-72.
Misconduct is wrong because it violates rights and causes people to be wrongly accused of crimes or be found not guilty and set free when they are still an endangerment to other people. The public needs to be educated on what is happening in the police system in hopes that someone will speak out to protect citizens from being violated by police officers. The article Police Integrity: Rankings of Scenarios on the Klockars Scale by “Management Cops,” conveys that the different scenarios for each definition and the nature of police work make this corruption difficult to specifically define (Vito 153). Since it is so challenging to correctly define, the three broad categories of malfeasance, misfeasance, and nonfeasance are used and then each type of deviance is placed somewhere under these expansive groups whether they are related to the others or not.... ...
Stories like John McDonald’s were not isolated for the time period. Between 1865 and 1894, the New York Times alone reported over 270 cases of police brutality (Shaw, 2012). Unfortunately, it was not until the middle of the 20th century that the law enforcement mindset would change and the idea of discretion, or using caution when applying force, was considered in police work. The 1980s marked the time period that scholarly examination of non-lethal force by police became a prevalent topic of research (Klahm & Tillyer, 2010).
Ethics play a huge role in a police officers line of work. Since police are given such a high degree of trust and authority, it can unfortunately be very easy for an officer to fall into some unethical behavior. This can range from just minor acts that are frowned upon, to actual downright illegal activity. Even though there are a countless number of acts and behaviors that can be considered unethical, in the following paper I will focus primarily on those incidents involving police officers who steal for their own personal gain, and discuss my position on the issue.
In 1991 the beating of Rodney King was videotaped and publicized throughout America (Son) . For many people this was their first time witnessing police abuse. The four policemen that were involved were subjected to a trial but were acquitted of their charges which included; use of excess force and assault. This event took place 27 years ago, today instances such as this take place almost every day. Police misconduct has been a recurring problem throughout the twentieth century and well into the twenty first century (Son, pg 179). When it comes to interactions with civilians, “...police officers are prohibited from (1) using unnecessary Force, (2) Abusing their authority, (3) speaking Discourteously, or (4) using Offensive language, all captured
According to the National Police Academy, in the past year, there have been over 7,000 reports of police misconduct; fatalities have been linked to more than 400 of these cases (Gul). Police brutality is often triggered by disrespect towards the police officer. The most noticeable form of brutality is physical, where Chemical gas, batons, tasers, and guns, can be used for physical intimidation or to actually hurt people. Police brutality can also take the form of verbal abuse or psychological intimidation. It seems reasonable to understand that sometimes the police are put into situations where excessive force may be needed. But, because some officers use these extreme actions in situations when it is not, police brutality should be addressed and looked into by both the police and the public. For instance, a police officer who beats a nonviolent protester with a baton would probably be accused of excessive use of force, under the argument that the police officer probably could have dealt with the situation less violently.
Police conduct has, for an exceedingly long time, been an issue in Africa and other parts of the world, be it corruption, sexual harassment, drug abuse, money laundering or brutality cite. A large portion of the world does not trust its police force cite and for this reason, there have been a lot of restructuring of the police force throughout the years in an effort to control police misconduct cite. Although we have seen some reformation on the police force, a lot of them still continue to blatantly carry themselves in a less than dignified manner cite. We see them use excessive force, take bribes, extort citizens, sexually harass them, all in the name of upholding the law and maintaining order cite.
Police decisions can affect life, liberty, and property, and as guardians of the interests of the public, police must maintain high standards of integrity. Police discretion concerning how to act in a given situation can often lead to ethical misconduct (Banks 29).
Kramer, M. “How Cops Go Bad.” Time. December 15, 1997: 81. EBSCOhost. Web. 10 Nov 2013